CHORAL READERS THEATER An Explanation of Goals, Format and Implementation Copyright 2008 Gregory Brown INTRODUCTION & EDUCATIONAL REASONING As an elementary teacher of almost 20 years, I've seen firsthand the individual benefits of both Readers Theater and Choral Reading. It's always baffled me as to why these two powerful reading strategies have never been brought together as an accepted concrete unit for reading instruction. Perhaps it's because no one has really known how to effectively combine the elements of both into one format. It's similar to the "peanut butter and chocolate" scenario we see advertised on television: individually we know they're great, but put together they could be stupendous! In my research of educational plans, programs and products, I've found that there are very few materials available that really address Choral Reading at all…even though reading teachers use it extensively in Guided Reading and Literacy Group settings! Since "Round Robin" is rather frowned upon these days, Choral Reading is making a huge comeback. In the early days of American education, students were expected to chorally read or recite verses from the Bible, famous poems and passages from classic books on a daily basis. In the era of the one-room schoolhouse, it was an effective strategy for addressing the many different ages and grade levels to be taught at one time. The younger children would listen and follow along with the older kids as they read out loud. Through daily and weekly repetition of the same verses or passages, they too would be able to successfully read with the group. There's nothing magic about it. It's just a strong, non-threatening, visually and orally supported way to read that works. DEFINITIONS, THEORY, GOALS & EFFECTIVE CHORAL READING In a nutshell, Choral Reading is defined as a group of students orally reading the same text, at the same time and at the same pace. In our normal conversational speech, people don't usually communicate with each other in that way. To be sure, it would feel rather odd if you walked into work or the supermarket today and people spoke to you only in groups. You might feel as though they had lost their marbles or that you were the victim of some kind of group joke! Yet, our mental speech (the things we all say in our heads) is probably very similar to those who are feeling/observing/experiencing the same situation at the same time we are. Have you ever been chatting with a friend and you both blurted out a shared thought verbatim? On many occasions most of us have used the phrase, "You took the words right out of my mouth"…because someone really did! Adults and children may not actually speak chorally all the time, but they certainly do think chorally throughout the span of any routine day. The foundation for effective Choral Readers Theater is rooted in the way groups of characters behave and vocalize this internal speech. The goal of Choral Readers Theater is to give all students in the Whole Class Setting (regardless of reading level) the opportunity to be exposed to and enjoy repeated readings of material that is on grade level. In my professional observations, students who are reading below grade level are usually put into lower reading groups (with good intentions) where they may be very successful, but not fully exposed to on grade level texts. Paradoxically, these same students must be able to successfully read and comprehend grade level materials on end-of-year evaluations. This is often a struggle for them because they have missed out on that much-needed modeling and interaction with their more fluent reading peers. Readers Theater with multi-leveled characters is a wonderful way to bridge this gap in the small group setting. It is one of the strategies that I personally use with my own students. They do get exposure to higher reading levels and their self-esteem always takes on a positive spin. However, within the Whole Class setting a slightly different approach could be explored. The span of reading levels in a class with 25 or 30 students can be as wide as an ocean. A multi-leveled script with that many levels and participants would have so many characters that they would end up with only one or two lines of dialogue each! Plus, the lower level students still wouldn't get to actually READ something on grade level! Choral Readers Theater provides that challenge in a non-threatening and fun atmosphere. I find that students are willing to take more risks if they feel they are not "alone" and realize they won't be singled out if they fail to meet expectations. With Choral Readers Theater it is "OK" if a child does not read every single word or sentence during that first or second classroom reading. Other children in that child's character group WILL read those words and the language will flow. There is no need to wait for decoding. On a later repeated reading, the student who previously skipped over those sentences may anticipate that part and (using visual cues, oral support and memory) successfully try that section. With more repeated readings, fluency and confidence will definitely grow. THE FORMAT OF A CHORAL SCRIPT Coming up with format that allows every child in the classroom, to tell a story, become a character and read chorally comes with its own set of challenges. Luckily, a simple glance out the window provides an easy solution. It is the natural order of the universe that things occur in groups. There are groups of people, animals, plants, foods, rocks, cars, clouds, bubbles, mountains, stars…really, just about anything you can think of. We live and work in groups. We hang out in groups. To build a story around groups of people, animals (or inanimate objects brought to life) would not stretch any plot line or a child's suspension of disbelief at all. What enables it to work are stories with dialogue where it makes sense for groups to be interacting and talking to each other. The unique glue that holds a choral script together is the way that teacher participation is infused into every story. When you're instructing a whole classroom full of diverse children the dynamics are quite different than when you're addressing kids in a small group. Getting 25 pairs of eyes to focus on something at one time requires an omnipresent leader. You could compare it to the clocklike workings within a church choir. There is always a director there: setting the tone, marking the pace, and bringing out strength in the vocals or cueing the subtle nuances. Even on Sunday morning when the song is ready to be presented to the congregation…the director is still there, out front, continuing to do his job. He does not step aside and watch from the wings. Imagine attending a performance by a famous symphony without the conductor. It just doesn't happen. In a choral script, the teacher will take on this pivotal position by always being the narrator of the story. If a narrator is not needed within the framework of a particular plot, then there must be one individual character part specially created for an adult reader. This marks a difference between traditional Readers Theater and Choral Readers Theater scripts. Not only will the narrator help move the story along, he will also keep the students in a responsive, on task mode by interjecting certain statements (and many times, questions) throughout the play. This will promote the use of prediction and reflective strategies, which are essential for young readers to develop. The rest of the cast will always consist of 5 or 6 character groups. Unless it is relative to the plot of a particular story, the size or number of readers in each character group will not be specified. This will allow the teacher more flexibility when assigning the choral parts. It also ensures that the student readers will readily accept that they can join any group. Since the average classroom size ranges from about 22 to 32 students, that roughly equates to about 6 readers per group. But remember, the teacher can place as few as 2 readers in any character group or as many as 10 and still pull it off! Those numbers are up to the teacher and students. The hard rules are: every character group must be read by a group of students. Only the adult narrator will read alone. Everyone in class is involved! I've found that the key to intriguing a whole class from the "get go" is to welcome them into a story that is both full of action and speckled with humor. My choral scripts may all carry an underlying lesson, but they are mostly written as a way for my students to have FUN while improving their reading. I believe that original stories work best for choral scripts. The playing field is "evened out" because there are no preconceived main characters. Even very young kids are keen on "who gets the best part". Original stories offer a chance for every character group to shine. Reading something chorally takes longer than when students read individually. This is the nature of the beast. Therefore, the scripts will be written with that in mind. What would take 15 minutes in a traditional Readers Theater approach, may take 20 minutes or more done in choral style. The pace has to be slower to facilitate the learning process in the whole classroom. A fun, short script works best. Its brevity also ensures that the script will receive repeated readings throughout the week, which is essential for receiving the full benefits from the activity. In the real world, teachers are constantly grilled about how their instructional time is used from minute to minute. Thus, if something is deemed "too long and drawn out" it will not be chosen for use. Add that to the fact that kids' attention spans are shorter and it's easy to see why teachers need something with lots of bang for their bucks. Since time is a big factor in the real world of education, the teacher's role as narrator becomes even more important. Every choral script begins with an introductory monologue read by the narrator/teacher. The monologue sets the tone for the piece, establishes the setting and provides any necessary background knowledge. This opens up a comfortable springboard allowing the student readers to jump directly into the action of the story. The dialogue between the character groups then propels the plot along while the narrator's comments (which are directed at the general audience) add to the comprehension of the piece. If there is no narrator, then the single character read by the teacher/adult will interact with the different character groups according to the story. It's important that the ending of the play never be "neatly wound up" by the narrator/teacher. The character groups will play out the plot until its resolution. Thus, the students, not the teacher, will "own" the theatrical experience. The "look" of a Choral Readers Theater script is very similar to that of traditional Reader's Theater. When the students first open the script they should immediately recognize it as a type of play. Choral Reading is more easily achieved if the size of the letters on the printed page is a little larger than normal. This facilitates the use of their fingers to track the words (which will be encouraged on the first readings) and generally helps poor readers keep their place. If the print is too small, those elementary readers who often struggle with print will perceive it as "too hard" and they will tune out. I've found in my teaching that most students (even those below grade level) can chorally read a few lines of text at a time (including return sweep) without problems. If there are too many lines of text bunched together then the students often get tired faster, loose their place at the end and generally don't do as good a job. Reading specialists know that elementary text is basically leveled by the number of words (and syllables) in a sentence and is also affected by the number of lines on a page. The inclusion of pictures and certain vocabulary concepts play a part as well. I developed a simple formula that seems to work well for my students: Provided that the sentence lengths are within the limits of the designated reading level, students can usually chorally handle the number of sentences (plus one or two more) that their grade level equates to. For example: My fourth graders were able to chorally read 5 sentences in a row without problem. My fifth graders could handle 6 sentences in a row. Likewise my second grade groups handled 2 or 3 sentences chorally with no drawbacks. When I tried longer sets of sentences, my poorer readers lacked the momentum to follow through to the end. It's those kids that have the greatest need to be an accepted part of the whole! My choral scripts use this formula to ensure maximum success from all students. The layout of a script might offer a title page that lists all the character groups and the narrator. This includes a short description of each one. An illustration near the beginning of the script to provide additional background knowledge would really help students. (Students can be taught to "pause and soak up" an illustration as part of the choral reading process. The narrator's comments can be strategically placed to "bookend" other illustrations so that the teacher controls how much time is spent there.) On standardized end-of-grade reading tests there are actually very few drawings or photos. Students are expected to read a lot of text on one page without picture cues. The title of the play should also appear at the top of the first page of dialogue. A concise main idea statement written in italics should be directly underneath it. Students often use this for quick reference when they want to "double check" their understanding of text and make sure they are on track. After the Narrator's introductory monologue (which is printed in the student script) the character groups dialogue begins. Their group names should be printed in bold on the left of the page when it is their turn to speak. This visual cue is so important! It compliments left to right progression, which is a basic rule of reading instruction. The dialogue should be written across the full width of the page so the sentences can form short paragraphs with each exchange. Expression cues should be written in parenthesis as needed. Color-coding the bold print of the character groups' names is another way to assure that students will keep their place. Tier Two vocabulary words will be placed in the dialogue (at an average of 5 to 8 per script) so the students' word power will be even more enriched. Too many new vocabulary words or concepts can sabotage the goal of increasing fluency. These words should be included in a short glossary at the end of the script. During the implementation of the choral readings, interactive vocabulary activities will be used to solidify the meanings of these useful words. IMPLEMENTATION OF CHORAL READERS THEATER Choral Readers Theater is designed primarily for the benefit of the readers, not the audience! Its implementation should reflect that. There are many ways that the readers will become their own audience and totally enjoy the experience. That's not to say that the final reading of the play can't be performed before a small audience of friends, other teachers or administrators…it can! That decision will be based on the needs of the children, as all teaching decisions should be. In most Readers Theater classroom arrangements, the students participating are usually sitting side-by-side at the front of the room. Since Choral Readers Theater involves the entire classroom, students may continue to sit right at their regular desks or tables. The important factor is that students in the same character groups are in fairly close proximity to each other. Just as altos and tenors are grouped together in a choir, the students reading the same choral parts must be able to hear each other clearly. In other words, they can't be halfway across the room. In my experience as a homeroom teacher, children LOVE a break from being glued to their regular assigned seats. They welcome any opportunity to move around and sit in a new spot! Another option is the have all the desks in a large circle, facing inward. Students will be sitting close to their assigned character groups, yet have a good view of the other groups they are interacting with during the readings. When assigning students to character groups the teacher should make sure that each group consists of a mixture of strong, average and low readers. As the script is reread on subsequent sessions and they become more familiar with the story, readers can be allowed a little more choice in their roles. However, each new group must still have that mix. Each Choral Readers Theater script would idealy be designed for use during a three week cycle in which the students will experience numerous opportunities to reread their roles. (I've found that 1 or 2 weeks is just not enough time for all elementary kids to internalize new material. On the flip side, covering the same story beyond 3 weeks invites the risk of deteriorating the students' interest and enthusiasm.) Once the teacher has introduced a new script, it should be chorally read daily for at least 3 consecutive days during that week. Often, poor readers have memory problems and benefit from this back-to-back approach. After spending 1 week chorally rereading the same roles, the students will then be placed in different choral groups for the following week. That's right…same script, different roles. This gives children a chance to really build on what they have learned the previous week…yet they'll be reading new words from other character viewpoints. By the end of the 3rd week, all students will have been totally immersed in the plot, seen the story through the eyes of the various characterizations, and tackled the unique problems that each different role presented. And all this can be done over the safety net of the group! Educational theory states that one of the best ways to strengthen any concept taught is to have a good follow-up lesson. This three week cycle, with its emphasis on rereading and changing roles, automatically provides such an experience within a manageable, student-friendly and teacher-friendly platform.